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Facebook is completely blocked in Tajikistan as government brands it “a hotbed of slander”

Tajikistan’s Office of Telecommunications has officially ordered all ISPs and mobile carriers in the country to block access to Facebook following a spoken order a day earlier.

By Monday evening, all 6 ISPs and 6 mobile carriers in Tajikistan complied to the orders, cutting local users from the world’s biggest social network.

The head of the office Beg Zuhurov has explained the reasons behind blocking Facebook to RIA Novosti,

“I received many calls from citizens of Tajikistan, asking me to shut down this Facebook as a hotbed of slander. Unknown people there insult the leaders of the state. They are apparently being paid well for that.”

Facebook has about 41,000 users in Tajikistan, which accounts for only 0,55% of its population and 5,87% of all local Internet users. This means that the ban apparently won’t have as large an impact as it may have had in other parts of the world, where Facebook is much more popular.

The news about the government restricting access to Facebook in Tajikistan first broke on Monday, after 3 local ISPs complied to a spoken order from the Office of Telecommunications.

A similar situation also occured back in March, when Facebook remained blocked in Tajikistan for about a week.